An average CEO collects a massive amount per hour in Canada
Published January 2, 2024 at 9:59 am
The rich are getting richer as Canada’s top CEOs broke earnings records again in 2022.
The average CEO collects $7,162 an hour, according to a new report released today (Jan. 2, 2024) from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives titled Canada’s New Gilded Age CEO Pay in Canada in 2022.
As many Canadians struggle with inflation, housing costs and head to food banks in record numbers, the top earners in the country make more in a day than many people make in a year, the report finds.
“It takes just over eight hours in the new year for the top 100 CEOs to clock in an average of $60,600—what the average worker in Canada makes in an entire year,” the report states.
The richest 100 CEOs in 2022 made 246 times more than the average worker—another all-time high for CEOs. This was a small increase from the previous record of 243 times that was set last year.
In 2022, the most recent year of data, Canada’s top 100 CEOs were paid $14.9 million, on average.
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This is an all-time high and bested the previous record of $14.3 million, which was set in 2021. This is more than double what CEOs got in 2008—$7.4 million—when the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives started publishing this annual report.
The report suggests inflation presented “a-once-in-a-lifetime chance for corporate Canada to jack up prices and pad their profit margins.”
But, at the same time, workers pay increases didn’t match inflation.
In 2022, the average worker in Canada got an average raise of $1,800, or three per cent, from $58,800 in 2021 to $60,600 in 2022.
Prices went up a whopping 6.8 per cent in 2022 (although much higher for things like food and rent), meaning that workers took a real pay cut of almost four per cent since their money could buy much less than it did in 2021, the report notes.
The top 100 CEOs, on the other hand, saw an average raise of $623,000, or 4.4 per cent, going from $14.3 million in 2021 to $14.9 million in 2022.
And the majority of the CEOs were men—only four of the top earners are women.
The executives work for a range businesses from telecom giants and restaurant chains to grocery store companies.
The top CEO on the report list of 100 top earners was the executive chairman for Restaurant Brands International Inc., J. Patrick Doyle, who took home a whopping $151,812,911 in 2022.
Restaurant Brands International Inc. owns Tim Hortons, Burger King, Popeyes and Firehouse Subs.
CEO Matthew Proud of Dye & Durham Ltd. brought in $98.9 million solely through option-based awards, earning the second spot.
And coming in third was CEO Seetarama (Swamy) Kotagiri of Magna International Inc. earning $36.4 million.
Well-known executives such as Galen G. Weston ($11,792,068) of George Weston Limited (Loblaws) and Tony Staffieri ($31,515,047) of Rogers Communications Inc. are also on the top 100 list.
See the full list and complete report here.
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